Susan Hated Literature

Dir: Neil Burger
Writ: Neil Burger based on short story Eisenheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser

• Edward Norton - Eisenheim
• Paul Giamatti - Inspector Uhl
• Jessica Biel - Sophie
• Rufus Sewell - Crown Prince Leopold

In Austria at the turn of the 20th century a young carpenter’s son falls in love with a girl from the local nobility. Obviously her family are not impressed by this and do their best to separate the pair, and after much drama they succeed. The young boy is Eisenheim, aka Eduard Abramovich, and at the very beginning of this film we see him on stage in Vienna. As he begins his act he is promptly arrested by Inspector Uhl. Uhl then heads off to debrief the Crown Prince Leopold, and as he does we get to see all the back story too.

I loved the look of this film. Visually it worked really really well. Such a pity then that the rest of the film fell short. I never got a sense of Eisenheim as a character. Yes, we know that he loves Sophie, who by now is unofficially engaged to the Leopold, but as for the rest of his character? Nothing. Sophie is slightly more understandable. She has grown up knowing that eventually she’ll have to marry for the good of her family, but yet was never able to forget her teenage love. Leopold is another character fairly lacking in development. He’s the badguy. And that is about it. Inspector Uhl is probably the most rounded of the main characters, and he is played superbly by Giamatti.

If I’m going to be brutally honest I was a little bored by this film. Possibly because I had a fair idea of what was going to happen all along. Show Spoilers ▼

IMDb | Stuff as Dreams are Made on | Western Eye | At the movies

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Writ & dir: M. Night Shyamalan

• Paul Giamatti - Cleveland Heep
• Bryce Dallas Howard - Story
• Jeffrey Wright - Mr. Dury
• Bob Balaban - Mr. Farber
• Sarita Choudhury - Anna Ran
• Cindy Cheung - Young Soon
• Freddy Rodríguez - Reggie

This is an odd film. A very odd film.

Ever since The Sixth Sense Shyamalan has been known as the “twist guy” for his film endings; I don’t think that is a fair description. And while you can say that Unbreakable, Signs and The Village all had twists to their endings, the twists weren’t all that important. The films were stories about people, truth, and finding out who you are. The Lady in the water continues in this vein, but at the same time it is a very different type of film. As Shyamalan has said, it is a bedtime story. A fairy tale, for children. So it is, of course, going to be more simplistic and yet at the same time it is more complicated than that.

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• Russell Crowe - Jim Braddock
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• Paul Giamatti - Joe Gould

Based on the true story of James J Braddock. A boxing film. Set during the Depression. Consider all of these things and you may be thinking that this is a sentimental boxer-overcoming-hardship film, and, in a way you’d be right. But Cinderella Man is much, much more than that.

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Dir: Alexander Payne

* Paul Giamatti - Miles
* Thomas Haden Church - Jack

Thank God, a good film. A great film even, and seeing as the films I saw before this were stinkers, what a relief.

Jack and Miles are best friends, Miles is Jack’s best man for his upcoming wedding. So they head off for a least week of freedom. So far, it could be any buddy film, with all the horrors that might entail. But don’t worry, this is no gross-out film, instead it is a character driven comedy.

Its hard to try and summarise the plot of this film, because this film is so involved in the characters rather than the plot. Miles, an unpublished author is hiding a drink problem behind his “wine-tasting”, while Jack just wants to sleep with anything that moves.

It may take a little while to get into, we have to be introduced to the characters afterall but don’t be put off by that. This is a fantastic comedy that, while full of subtlety and small moments, also has some great laugh out loud moments. All I’ll say is lovely bobble hat. If you see the film you’ll understand

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